Food Poverty in the UK and Tesco Neighbourhood Food Collection Challenge #everycanhelps

We often hear the saying ‘You don’t know what you have until it’s gone’ and last week we experienced it first hand. We are blessed with good jobs that pay our bills and put food on our table every day, however not everyone is as lucky as us. Sadly food poverty is growing rapidly in the UK and many families rely on food banks to feed their children.

In order to raise awareness of the growing issue of food poverty, we were invited to take part in the Neighbourhood Food Collection Challenge and face the challenge of poverty for a week by living off a food parcel containing products to last us for 5 days.

We were sent a food parcel, similar to the ones from a food bank, with the following items: mixed vegetables, red kidney beans, spaghetti bollognese, vegetable soup, ratatouille, chopped tomatoes, mince beef and onion, tomato soup, chicken soup, tinned mandarin, tinned grapefruit, porridge oats, soya milk, eggs, rice, cous cous, soup pasta, fresh banana, jelly, tea bags and rich tea biscuits.

I was surprised to find out that the price of the food parcel was just over £10. There were quite a lot of items, but not many fresh ingredients – only bananas!

I must confess I am not so keen on canned meals, so I panicked a little when I saw the food parcel. We didn’t have any bread, so we used soup pasta and rice to bulk up the soup. I missed having fresh meat and fresh vegetables during the challenge. It makes me sad that many families don’t have access to fresh fruit, vegetable and meat, but at least they can rely on food donations to feed themselves and their families. 

Tesco will undertake its 4^th Neighbourhood Food Collection next week, on the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th July, to help tackle the growing issue of food poverty in the UK.  Customers across the country will be encouraged to donate non-perishable food items to Tesco stores nationwide. 

You might have seen a donation box at your local Tesco, it is a great campaign and everyone should get involved as the collection helps provide much needed food for the Trussell Trust foodbank network and the over 1,290 UK charities supported by food redistribution charity FareShare.  

Trussell Trust foodbanks provide three days of emergency food to individuals and families in crisis. Frontline care professionals including doctors and social workers refer people who are facing hunger to the foodbank. FareShare is a unique charity fighting hunger by redistributing surplus food to hundreds of local charities, ranging from homeless shelters to children’s breakfast clubs.

I had to be very creative during meal times to make the food parcel last (and avoid tinned ready meals). Breakfast was my favourite meal of the challenge, I enjoy porridge, and porridge with soya milk was quite nice. I added tinned grapefruit to my porridge one day, tinned mandarin on the next day.  

• Day 1: Chicken soup with rice for lunch, rice with 1/2 can of ratatouille for dinner
• Day 2: Tomato soup with soup pasta for lunch, and rice with 1/2 can of kidney beans for dinner
• Day 3: Vegetarian omelette (eggs with mixed vegetables) for lunch, cous cous with 1/2 can of ratatouille for dinner
• Day 4: Vegetable soup with soup pasta for lunch, egg fried rice (rice with eggs) for dinner
• Day 5:  Cous cous with chopped tomato for lunch, cous cous with 1/2 can of kidney beans for dinner

I snacked mostly on jelly, some days on banana, and had a cup of tea with a couple of biscuits daily in the morning and in the afternoon. I’ve never seen a packet of biscuit last for so long, but I had to enjoy it wisely.

Towards the end of the challenge, I really wanted a sweet treat with my tea, so I made banana flapjack by mixing two mash bananas with a cup of porridge oats, and baking the mixture on a small tray for 20 minutes. 

The campaign hashtag is #everycanhelps, and during the challenge I realised that every single can makes a big difference. If we had one less can of soup, I would have to skip a meal. You can help feed people in need by donating food to the Neighbourhood Food Collection, in store and online from Thursday 3^rd July to Saturday 5^th July.

During the Neighbourhood Food Collection in December 2013, enough food was donated to provide a record 4.3 million meals.  In total, Tesco and its customers have donated more than 10 million meals, as well as much needed funds to support the growth and maintenance of the charities Trussell Trust and FareShare. 

For more information, please check http://foodcollection.tesco.com/together, you can also follow @TescoMedia and the hashtag #everycanhelps

I received a food parcel to take part in the Tesco Neighbourhood Food Collection Challenge and raise awareness of food poverty in the UK.